We were approached by Zare’in who urged us to go after the Cult of the Shriven Sickle who were after a magical item called the Geomancer’s Stone. He also gave Maranthiel a magical compass that points to a particular coin secretly planted on one of the cultists.

The stone is located somewhere in the Bonekeeper’s valley so we went there after brief preparations. We met our guide, Selma there who took us to an entrance of a cave that servers as a tomb -complex and according to her is goes very deep and has countless corridors and graves.

With the aid of the compass and Maranthiel’s guidance we managed to stay on their tracks going ever deeper into the foreboding caves…

Eventually we found a spot with lots of blood and followed a bloody trail a short distance only to find a corpse hidden in one of the tomb -alcoves. An hour or so later we found other blood stains – considerably less than the first ones – and followed them to find a young woman covered in blood hiding inside a tomb -alcove. She told us that she was attacked by a group of well equipped and armored people. They had a bird with them that scraped her arm at some point and poisoned her.

We patched her up and gave her food, water and a few torches and promised we’d come back this way after we dealt with the cultists. Eventually we found a hole on the floor of a cave further up ahead that Kaidi pointed out and said it was clearly made with a Stoneshape spell.

We had found the cultists who turned out to be resourceful indeed while fighting for their lives against us. We prevailed after a long struggle. Liathar examined a magical circle we found and managed to activate it by dabbling with it. A portal opened and we stepped through to find an elven woman that had fully white eyes. She asked what was our business here and we told her we wanted to prevent the cultists from gaining the Geomancer’s stone. After a bit of convincing she agreed to relinquish the stone to us. After that the woman disappeared and the stone appeared to us in a form of a greenish tiara the lady was wearing. Then we stepped out of the portal and were back inside the caves.

We met Coral in the shadowlands who told us that Jak was hunting us. She also mentioned that she ‘got lost’ during Battle of the Broken Sun and claimed she wasn’t killed (at least to her knowledge). Her form was shadowy and she looked pale. She also told us about a shadow lord ‘Sunbreaker’ who was gathering forces in the shadowlands. Beren had suggested Coral that Kaidi and Liathar should help Rusk in his quest – this would help them in fixing the laylines as well.

We moved on and eventually found our way out of the shadowlands. It tooks us three more days to get out of the seemingly endless caves and back into the sunlight. We found ourselves near Thornward. A setback that troubled us. There was also snow on the ground.

We arrived in Thornward four hours later and located an inn – ‘The Armoured Rooster’ where we found Willem von Drakdale with whom we shared a drink. Or two. Or thr….

We decided to arrange marriage. Vera will pursue Mattis to convince her uncle of getting Heiron married to the wealthy lady in Shiboleth. Find Talga.

Continuing along the path, we managed to spot a group of ogres lead by a Verbeeg with a warg without them noticing us. After a moment of deliberation we decided to ambush them with the help of Vera’s Silence -spell.

We managed to get closer but then Xia’tot stumbled and almost fell into the ravine only barely succeeding in grasping Tanith who in turn lost his balance as well, causing them both to fall over the ledge. Tanith, however succesfully grabbed the ledge and barely managed to hold on with Xia’tot dangling from his left ankle.

Rusk and Maranthiel rushed to help them but Rusk also lost his footing and was soon hanging from Tanith’s left ankle as well while his spear fell into the ravine.

The ogres noticed this… predicament and bursted laughing. Vera shot an arrow at them and they started charging towards us. Maranthiel managed to pull us all up just in time to catch a Lightning Bolt -spell cast by the Verbeeg. Alan and Xia’tot went down while Maranthiel, Rusk, and Tanith were partly hit by the magical onslaught. Luckily the Warg that was too fast for his own good and attacking Alan already was also well roasted…

Vera went to save Alan with her healing spell while Tanith started to cast a spell. Rusk grabbed Xia’tot’s spear and moved in front of Alan and Vera to intercept the charging ogres. The first ogre was skewered all the way through by Rusk’s spear but the one charging behind it managed to strike his shoulder while he was struggling with the heavy corpse of the first. Vera cast a Cure Light Wounds -spell, which saved Alan’s life. Meanwhile Maranthiel struck the giant with his arrow, disrupting the spell he was casting. Also, Tanith finished his spell – Evard’s Black Tentacles, with the tentacles grabbing and crushing all the screaming ogres. Some were still alive, but Rusk and Alan made short work of the two surviving ones. Maranthiel ended the Verbeeg’s attempt at quaffing a potion and his life with a clean shot through the neck.

After the battle Vera saved Xia’tot as well and then we proceeded to loot the corpses and Rusk even managed to retrieve his spear by diving into the ravine where it had fallen. The Verbeeg was carrying a note written in giant language with an emblem of a mountain struck by lightning on it. None of us could read it though. Maranthiel and Alan remembered hearing something about an individual calling himself the ‘Stormlord’ who is a giant chieftain, shaman or something like that. The handwriting is very neat. Xia’tot actually recognised two words from the note: “Find” and “Dwarves”.

Then we roasted the Warg and some fish from the ravine and made camp for the night.

Next morning, Maranthiel lead us further along the mountain trail. In the afternoon we came across a small flooded valley. Unfortunately the trail was also under water and made a steep turn after 30 feet or so. Maranthiel went to scout on to the waist-high water and after the turn he saw that the flooding joined with a small but deep rapid that was flowing with a fairly fast pace. Tanith cast a Tenser’s Floating Disc that helped us all across; even Dandelion after Rusk calmed him.

We left for Darrofgak with Tanith, Alan and Xia’tot. After a few days journey we arrived in the capital city of Gran March – Hook Hill. Tanith asked us if we would spare a few days time so he could acquire some spellcasting equipment. We decided we could do this and went to visit Vera von Drakdale’s blacksmith friend, Derris.

We went on to Green Downs, a small agricultural village near the Lortmil Mountains about a days trip from Hook. We spent a night at the local guesthouse and pressed on to the mountains. In the evening a storm and heavy rain hit us so we started to look for a place to weather out the storm. Vera was looking a bit ill but she assured the rest of us she could keep going. Eventually we found a cave, apparently dug by gnomish hands; at least it looked a lot like the ones we saw at the underground river on our way to Drakdale.

In the morning the storm was still raging on and Maranthiel noted that it seemed unnaturally strong somehow. It stopped precisely at midday so we continued our journey. A rockslide surprised us on a narrow ledge and Alan came to protect Rusk who in turn raised his shield over Dandelion’s head to protect him from the worst of it. Tanith was also in danger but Vera managed to save him. Rusk, Vera, Tanith, Alan and Dandelion took some minor injuries from the falling rocks but with Vera’s healing capabilities and spells we were able to tend to the wounds. Maranthiel aimed at the cliffside with his bow, thinking he saw something but we couldn’t make out anything on the cliffs.

Later that day we encountered another narrow ledge which had been mostly torn away by rockslides. We managed to get everyone – even Dandelion – across.

Lord Langmar told us of a golden tablet that had arcane text on it. He had found it in the dragon’s hoard long ago.

He told us that a great evil emanated from the tablet the same day at the exact moment that the Crying Spears fought in the Battle of the Broken Sun.

10 years ago Lord Langmar – fearing the evil powers of the tablet – delivered it to his friend Gilaf who belongs to an isolationist dwarven clan of Darrofgak. The Darrofgakians worship Dumathoin, the dwarven god of secrets, gems and underground treasure. They are considered odd and reclusive even by other dwarves.

We persuaded Tanith to come with us because of his knowledge of the arcane. He did demand first pick right to any magic items we might find and 1/3 of the loot.

Sir Emeric of Ket told us he would go after Talga. We felt relieved since it looked like we would have an extremely hard time going back to Ket after our last trip. Still, a feeling of guilt is overwhelming at times because of the way we had to leave her there – despite it being her own wish. She’s a brave one, she is.

We had a very difficult time getting out of Falwur after Talga had presumably been captured. We had almost reached the gate when one of the guards pointed at Vera von Drakdale and wanted to seize her. We didn’t like it in the least, but we decided that we must get the antidote to Langmar von Drakdale as soon as possible to prevent another pointless war between Keoland and Ket. We swore that we would come back for her as soon as we had saved him though.

Eventually we made it out of there though and travelled as quickly as we could in Bramblewood while avoiding the Ketite patrols. After a few days travel we arrived at Thornward and had to slip by yet another patrol while getting there.

What we know about the client who hired an assassin called Face to kill Lord Langmar von Drakdale:
- The client is a woman.
- She is known as the Smiler.
- She has vested interest in silencing Langmar von Drakdale.

What we have found out so far:
- Langmar von Drakdale was poisoned by an assassin from Sleeping Eye faction. We don’t know yet who hired him/her.
- Jason slept in the adjacent room to Lord Langmar because he was ill. Otherwise he usually slept in the same room with his Lord. Jason blames himself for this.
- Jason met a girl he thought was Wendy and slept with her two days before Lord Langmar was poisoned. The next day, he became ill; rather conveniently leaving Lord Langmar to sleep alone the night he was poisoned.

- A woman travelled towards Drakdale in the same group of travelling companions as Sir Emeric of Ket and Nikol. She met with a man we suspect to be the assassin at Warfield Inn. The woman left the group and the man joined it until they reached Drakdale.
- Wendy met the assassin in the village three days before Lord Langmar was poisoned. She described him as a brown haired man who looked like an adventurer. For some reason she couldn’t remember many details about him and this seemes to cause her distress as well. Also, the man wore a pendant of bone or wood which had a silhouette of a sneaking figure and a closed eyelid on it which indicates the Sleeping Eye – a guild of assassins – according to Talga.
- The assassin stayed at the Drakesmouth Inn for one night and left the following evening. He paid for his stay in Velunian coins. The assassin introduced himself at the inn as Marlen.

- Sir Emeric was captured outside castle grounds during the night Lord Langmar was poisoned and then imprisoned in the castle dungeon. He seems the obvious culprit to most. Sir Emeric’s horse is still at the Drakesmouth Inn stables; it is a fine Baklunish horse.

Blacksteel:
- Most likely an individual assassin who uses poison to coat their weapons black so they don’t reflect light. Willem von Drakdale had heard this rumour and shared it with us.

When we arrived back to Rhorton’s Grove we first went to see Rusk. Luckily his fever had gone down and he felt much better. After we filled Rusk in about what had happened at the swamp we decided that Vera should try to talk to the spirit of the lizard wizard.

I must say that I felt slightly uncomfortable when the talk turned to Rusk’s children. The old man hadn’t known that it was possible to talk with the dead like that and seemed keen on knowing if Vera would be able to contact his children or brothers in arms who had died in the big battle. I understood why he would like to talk with them but I myself couldn’t imagine wanting to talk to anyone dead… Best if you didn’t interact with them too much.

When we went to the tavern to fetch the skin from Ossin the party was in full swing and the young hunter was once again telling the others the story of his heroic deeds. I had grown quite fond of the boy during the few days we had been in Rhorton’s Grove. His enthusiasm was endearing and I almost hoped that we didn’t need him to show us the way to Mosswall. I had a hunch that that trip wouldn’t end well.

Vera cast the spell on the skin and asked our questions: it called the thing it had tried to summon Sess’inek. According to the spirit with the help from that Sess’inek they would burn everything. It also spoke something weird about the great crocodile Sess’inek ‘s jaws would consume the eggmother and lead them to glory. Many allies, it said: the man in the coin armor supplies them, filthy orcs make weapons and Sess’inek empowers them. Also giants were coming and it threatened that the necromancer would get us. The darkness and power was gathering at Mosswall.

The hissing sound and the words of the dead lizard man made a chill go down my spine. I didn’t like this at all. Oh how I wanted to see Zare’in, as he had insisted me calling him. The name felt weird in my mouth. I was sure he could explain what was going on.

After the chat with the spirit we decided to join the party that was going on inside. I didn’t much feel like partying and sat most of the time in the corner table. Also partly because I didn’t want to make the villagers feel uncomfortable. At some point Vera came to me and insisted that I would have to join the other, to make a good impression. A bit grudgingly I joined the others and even drank few pints of the local ale. I refused to touch Bogwater, still shuddering at the thought of the hang over it gave me.

Ossin tried to hit on me. It was really quite cute and I couldn’t help flirting back a bit. Luckily he didn’t seem to mind that much when at some point I had to gently turn him down. As much as liked the boy I didn’t like him that much. Well, there was plenty of fish in the water for him since all the girls in the village were fighting for the attention of the local hero.

In the morning the weather was cloudy and warm and it felt like it might rain at some point. Lyman came to us when we were leaving and gave us small jar of ointment that later turned out to be Keoghtom’s ointment. Really powerful stuff that could heal wounds and cure from poisons. It made us all wander who the old herbalist really was and what a man with his skills was doing in an isolated place like this. Then again, some people had secrets for a reason and I knew better than to ask.

The morning went by peacefully but at some point in the afternoon Ossin halted us and told us to be quiet. I quickly saw why. In a pond about 20 yards from us was a giant frog the size of a man. Ossin told us that they were pretty dangerous and could eat humans. The meat was really tasty though. After a short negotiation we decided that it would be best to walk around it though the detour would delay us by couple of hours.

The rest of day was uneventful and our guide found as a camping place on small hill. We had only slept few hours when we woke to Vera’s scream. She had been on the watch and a snake had bitten her bottom. She was a bit shaken and the snake was apparently poisonous and the wound had started to look infected. The men were of no use, Ossin blushing like girl and Rusk modestly turning his back so I had to use the ointment Lyman had given us. The effect was immediate and the wound healed in front of my eyes. And damn her arse was fit…